“Lasting and Leaving” is a generative sound art installation built with MaxMSP for a multichannel array. Random periodic sequences are triggered by foot traffic in a public space. Its effect is such that a person walking through the space may find a particular sound associated with them upon their entry seems to follow them as they make their way, while layering with the sounds of others doing the same.
This installation was inspired by a 1913 score ‘Musical Sculpture’ by Marcel Duchamp, later interpreted as ‘Sculptures Musicales’ by John Cage: “Sounds lasting and leaving from different places and forming a sounding sculpture that lasts.”
The piece is also a personal recalling for me, at the end of my MFA studies. I began my research into systems thinking and communication thanks to a pilgrimage undertaken in Japan, which cemented for me the idea that an environment becomes the embodied experience of those who travel through it, leaving traces and taking pieces with them. Read the installation’s wall text here.
Listen here:
The first full installation of “Lasting and Leaving” took place in the Without Borders Festival in May-June of 2018.
Image credits from Without Borders Festival: James Winters @2018